TSA: How would you rate this year’s placement season as compared to previous years?PC: Overall, there has been an increase in the number of job opportunities, students placed and average packages as compared to the previous years. As such, this year’s placement season has been much better.

TSA: What were the new initiatives (to attract companies or otherwise) introduced this year? How would you rate their success ?PC: This year, in collaboration with Communique, we conducted a “Placement Drive” consisting of CV Building and GD/PI/Case workshops by professionals. Although the attendance was not what we expected, we received a lot of positive feedback and plan to continue it next year as well.
In addition, some of the earlier endeavors like the TnPedia (in collaboration with TSA) and the department representatives were improved upon and have been successful.
Apart from this, we tried to introduce other initiatives like a TnP ERP system, but they fell through due to various reasons.

TSA: Department Representatives is a fairly new concept. How have they been helpful to the Placecomm?PC: Ideally, a department representative is expected to support the student placement committee by providing a priority list of companies, information about the department pertaining to prospective recruiters and sourcing industry contacts from professors in the department. In this regard, many department representatives have proved to be adequate.

TSA: Based on feedback from Companies, what are the skill sets KGPians are found wanting in?PC: Although there are always exceptions – in this case, a large number of them – in general, when compared to other IITs such as Bombay and Delhi, KGPians fall behind mainly in communication skills.

TSA: Is there any advice you would like to offer for the next batch of students gearing up for placements?PC: Make sure you prepare well prior to an interview. Don’t oversell yourself in your CV. Most importantly, don’t sweat it – whenever you face any kind of situation, the placecomms are your go-to guys.

TSA: What were the major trends (if any) you witnessed with respect to the companies recruiting?PC: There is no one answer to this question. The trends of recruiters are very company specific and wildly vary from person to person. What works this year may not necessarily do so the next. Only one thing is obvious – the smarter you are and the higher your CG, the more the companies like you.

TSA: What were the major obstacles you faced throughout the season and how did you overcome them?PC: During the placement season itself, the obstacles we faced were opinionated HR persons, frantic students, sleep deprivation and occasional migraines. Its not impossible to overcome any of these ‘obstacles’. Coffee was a big help.

TSA: Has TSA’s TnPedia helped students sitting for placements? How do you think it can be improved?PC: It was definitely helpful to a large number of students. However, there will be a marked improvement with a more streamlined and exhaustive form of data collection.

TSA: Were there any instances of unprofessional conduct by students reported by companies?PC: There are always instances of unprofessional conduct and complaints in a huge operation such as this. However, with the help of the professor-in-charge, Prof. S.K.Srivastava, these issues were taken care of. As he likes to say, these are only minor hurdles and we should not lose sight of our main goal.

TSA: Being a Placecomm member must be a very demanding job. How has your experience been? What will be your advice to students aspiring to be Placecomm members?PC: It has indeed been a very demanding job but it has also been rewarding. One gets to learn a lot and build lasting relationships. To those who are aspiring to be members, make sure you know what the job entails and that you are upto the task before you decide.